TALLAHASSEE & CLEARWATER, FLORIDA--The week after two separate
courts refused to hear appeals over keeping Terri Schiavo alive, both courts
issued stays in the case, allowing her to continue to receive food and water
through a feeding tube while appeals are made to higher courts.

On Wednesday, the Florida Supreme Court gave Governor Jeb Bush until
November 29 to appeal its recent decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state court had ruled on September 23 that Bush was wrong to
champion "Terri's Law", a measure under which the Legislature gave him
authority last October to override her husband's wishes to have Terri starve
and dehydrate to death. The court ruled that the law violated Florida's
Constitution by giving the governor and Legislature illegal power over the
judicial system.

On Friday, Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer granted a
new stay which will allow Terri to continue receiving food and water through
the tube until her parents' appeals have been exhausted. The appeal process
could take months or years.

Greer's decision came in response to a request earlier in the week by
Michael Schiavo to have Terri's feeding tube removed on November 9, instead of
the December 6 date he had set last week.

Greer refused to hear an appeal by Terri's parents regarding new
evidence in her case, but decided to give them time to take their case to the
appeals court.

Terri collapsed from a heart attack in February 1990 and her brain was
without oxygen for several minutes. She breathes on her own and regulates her
own blood pressure. But because she does not swallow, she receives her
nutrition and hydration through a tube installed through the wall of her
stomach.

In February 2000, Judge Greer ruled that Mr. Schiavo could have his
wife's feeding tube removed. Greer agreed with Schiavo and several doctors that
Terri is in a "persistent vegetative state" -- that her brain is damaged the
point where she can not interact with her environment, does not feel pain, and
will not recover -- and that she would not have wanted to live "by artificial
means".

Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, have fought Mr. Schiavo
through the courts for the past 11 years for their daughter to receive
rehabilitative therapies, including speech and swallowing therapies, and to
keep her alive. They argue that Terri responds to them, smiles, and has even
tried to stand up.

The Schindlers believe that Terri, 40, a life-long Catholic, would not
have wanted to die by starvation, especially at this point because doing so
would violate a recent pronouncement by Pope John Paul II. The pope said in
March that letting people with severe disabilities die by starvation or
dehydration amounted to euthanasia, and is both unethical and immoral.

Last week Greer said that nothing had changed since his earlier
decision. He noted that, before her collapse at age 26, Terri had not been a
consistent observer of Mass and did not have a regular religious advisor to
counsel her.

The Schindlers have tried to get Mr. Schiavo removed as Terri's legal
guardian, pointing to the fact that he spent much of a fund intended for her
care and rehabilitation on his fight to have her die, and that for the last
seven years he has been engaged to another woman with whom he has fathered two
children.

Last October, when Terri's feeding tube was removed under Greer's court
order, disability rights advocates and right-to-die groups flooded the offices
of Gov. Bush and state lawmakers with messages asking for them to intervene and
save Terri's life. Bush's office quickly wrote "Terri's Law" and pushed it
through the Legislature in near-record time, leading to the reinsertion of
Terri's feeding tube just six days after it had been removed.

Mr. Schiavo appealed that action to the state Supreme Court, claiming
the law violated Terri's right to privacy and the state constitution. The high
court did not address the privacy concerns, but said the governor and the
Legislature overstepped their legal bounds in passing and implementing the
law.